Brief Interlude - Recap

The episode begins with a woman enjoying a concert at a hotel. She is handed a pill by one of the guests, which she reluctantly has. One of the band members comes down from the stage to dance with this woman. While they are dancing, the guest, who handed the pill to the woman, joins her on the dance floor. Suddenly, Ariel, the woman, begins to feel weird about something and rushes out, saying she wants to go home. She steps out of the hotel on her own. The next day, in a park, while strolling with her baby, a woman sees Ariel, lying motionless on a row boat stranded in a pond. She immediately calls the cops.

Nick updates Olivia that the victim has suffered blunt force trauma to the head, but is alive. Also, she appears to have been sexually assaulted. They don’t know who she is because there was no ID found on her. The woman who found Ariel reveals that she meets a dealer named Jasper at the park each day. She says she saw Jasper and his friend going through the victim’s pockets, when she got there. She has psychological issues for which she buys meds from the dealer. At the hospital, while waiting for the victim to regain consciousness, Olivia and Nick discuss the fact that the park, where the victim was found, is practically the mayor’s backyard because it’s so close to his mansion. The coroner tells the duo that the victim is in a coma and was hit was a sharp wooden object.

There was alcohol and ecstasy in her blood. The coroner has also learnt that she has had two children. Based on the marks left by an old hernia operation, it looks as if she is from another country and must have come to the US some time ago. At the park, Rollins and Finn arrest Jasper, and Todd, his accomplice. Todd and Jasper reveal that they found a key card for a hotel in the victim’s pocket, besides a lipstick, but no credit cards or any other identification. In the hotel room, Nick and Olivia find the victim’s Canadian passport, which also reveals that she entered the country four days ago. By going through her internet browsing details, Olivia and Nick learn that Ariel Randolph, the victim, is a music blogger and podcast host, whose husband Natt Randolph is a local Canadian celebrity and radio host.

They have two sons. Ariel was attending the “Caravan Serai Music Festival” in New York. Cragen is told that Ariel called several different phone numbers while in the city. He orders that the numbers be tracked down, so he has some answers for Ariel’s family, who are about to arrive from Canada. A few people, who she met in the city for various reasons are questioned, but that yields no useful information. The coroner informs Nick and Olivia that DNA from three different males, were found on Ariel’s body. Ariel’s husband and kids arrive at the hospital and are lead to her room. Afterwards, Nick has a talk with Natt Randolph, and asks him if he has any idea, who she was meeting in the city. He says he doesn’t have a clue.

While Olivia and Rollins are having a chat with Ariel’s boys, Philip Sapio, Ariel’s sound editor, who she has met after arriving in the city, comes to see her, flowers in hand. He is told by Olivia that Ariel hasn’t gained consciousness yet, so he leaves the flowers with Olivia and walks out. Nick shows Natt Facebook photos of Ariel with various musicians, who she met in the city. Natt recognizes one musician from a photo, saying she really liked him and he had come to perform in their hometown a few months ago. Rollins and Finn arrive at Santiago Morales’ (the musician) doorstep. While the duo is questioning Santiago, the woman, who had passed Ariel the pill during the concert, arrives. Rollins immediately recognizes the woman as Mr. Landry, the principal of PS 27, the school where Ariel wanted to send her kids to.

Rollins removes his wig, while he fumbles with his words. At the precinct, Cragen is told that Ariel’s IPad was found in Santiago’s loft. He claims Ariel loaned it to him. Cragen is also informed that Charlie Landry’s DNA is a match for the saliva found in the back of Ariel’s neck. This means Landry was with Ariel the night she was attacked. During questioning, Santiago claims that Ariel panicked, when she found out Landry was a man and soon after, she left the club. Landry when questioned admits that he met Ariel at the lounge and not at school like he had said before. He says Ariel gave him her extra key to her hotel room. After seeing the news, Santiago went to her room and stole her IPad because they were worried the pictures on the IPad would look incriminating to the cops.

He claims that neither he nor Santiago followed her, after she ran out of the club, on realizing that he (Landry) is a man. Security footage from the hotel corroborates what Santiago and Landry are claiming. In the footage, Ariel is seen leaving by herself, so Cragen wonders how she landed up in the pond in a row boat. They look through the street cam footage from that night and see that Ariel was picked up by someone in a white van. Olivia recognizes that van as Philip Sapio’s and he is brought in for questioning. Philip admits that he tried to kiss her, but she pushed him away and went into the park by herself. While pushing him away, she scratched him, which is how his DNA ended up under her fingernails.

Cragen instructs the team to ask around in the park to see if anyone saw something that night. At the park, while the team is talking to all the homeless people, asking if they saw something, a hobo tries to make a run for it. He is caught and brought in for questioning. The team learns that it’s the hobo, who sexually assaulted her and then dumped her in the row boat, so no one would find her. At the hospital, Randolph is informed by Nick and Olivia about, who attacked his wife. His son comes there and calls for him.

He rushes to his wife’s room with his son. From a distance Olivia and Nick see that Ariel has passed away. At the precinct, Natt is shown a video that Ariel had recorded on her phone just before she was assaulted. In the video she is shown telling Natt, how much she loves him and her kids. Her kids are also shown the video. The episode ends at this point.